Step 1: Tools & Materials

Only One Tool Is Needed

This tool is your trusty computer, which is necessary to buy the two NIB magnets.
I recommend you get ten of everything............. your friends will love it.
And if your as old as the coin as I am get 20 of each.

Materials Needed

First you need a clean 1943 iron penny. This is available through a numismatist ( coin ) shop.

Step 2: What Is An Iron Penny

An Iron penny is basically made of.........Zinc coated Steel.
it can and does Rust,
but the color is Blue like steel pic_1.
it is Magnetic and is strongly attracted to magnets.

Some Stats;

The penny was made by the US in 1943, because of the War effort that needed the Copper for bullets.
Real 95% Copper pennies circa 1960 weigh o.11 ounces, while Iron pennies weigh o.10 ounce each.
Keep in mind there has been No significant Copper in American pennies since the 1983.
Present coinage is 2.5% Copper 97.5% Zinc per penny, circa 2000 weigh only o.09 ounces today.

See the four Iron pennies attached to a small stack of 3/8" diameter horizontal magnets.

And the five iron pennies step-stacked with a sixth vertical iron penny held in position by NIB magnets.

In the spirit of your iron penny @ burning man........ I gave mine all away! Since, I have purchased some and its a very addictive activity. Anyone who spots it or asks about my "hat pin" gets one. Thanks again

Unlike all years before, they random selected who could buy 2 tickets this year, because they ran out of the desert authorities 50K limit..

Ex ample, The people who spend $40,000 to put up a free bar only got half their workers ( impossible situation ) so they are not doing the bar.

This hurt every art project.... In the 11Hour the desert authorities relented to permit 60K tickets Too Late for restarting major art projects. Several mini burn events already occur ed on Indian controlled land.

Wow, you truly do learn something new everyday... I had to look up the facts on this "rare copper penny" and found some info that suggest an authentic 1943, copper U.S. Penny is worth $10,000 +

That being said, there are a lot of forgeries out there. Its considered an "error coin", because the U.S. Mint accidentally used the wrong planchet metal, but coins got out before the error was discovered.

I must be checking my coins more often.... even here in Canada, our coins are inundated with U.S. pennies.

I think I read somewhere that only a few hundred may have been struck, and that most of them are in the hands of collectors....with maybe 6 or so in circulation if they haven't been destroyed somehow...

My research also confirms 6 are still unaccounted. Good luck finding one. I have often thought about using two simple servos to position pennies to a viewable neural net algorithm which can reject improbable copper dates from my kilos of old copper.

You are correct and "Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight".

I have many Rust ridden pennies and no gentle way to clean the rust without defacing the coin. When thinking of steel the concept of stainless and poor magnetic properties come to mind, however neither of these steel distinguishing characteristics are presented in my favorite penny. Based on this, I will continue to refer to this coin as an Iron penny :-) Please tell me, what do you think now ??

I looked it up and other names for it is rust converter, and navel jelly. if you want to search online. It turns the rust black and according to some sites it can be scrubbed off. I recommend testing it first on something expendable to see how hard it is to remove the black oxidation.

Steel is not necessarily stainless. Stainless steel is a particular steel alloy containing chromium and nickle in addition to iron and carbon, which also accounts for its poor magnetic properties.

There are dozens of steel alloys that will rust as easily as iron and have equal or slightly improved magnetic properties. Though you are free to call your pennies what ever you desire.

A cheap source of phosphoric acid is give the coins an overnight soak in diet coke. Or another method is place them in a jar with distilled vinegar and salt (doesn't matter really how much) and give it a shake.

During the war there was a high demand for copper by military arms manufacturers, so they switched the pennies from pure copper to steel, since steel was more abundant at the time. Naturally, pennies have to cost less than a penny's worth of the material their made of.

About This Instructable

Bio:Changed my avatar to Czech-point an appropriate visage depiction..... I was born in the capital city of a country that no longer exists.... I am an Electronic Engineer and received my first degree (...read more »